PG&E mulls change to whole-house water replacement program in Hinkley

HINKLEY >> Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is proposing changes to a whole house replacement water system here in the wake of a first-of-its-kind proposed drinking water standard for chromium-6.

Last year PG&E voluntarily introduced what it calls “an unprecedented program” that offers a sophisticated treatment system to remove chromium-6 from the residential wells of town residents.

Residents could participate if their homes were within a mile of the chromium-6 plume boundary and their wells had any detection of chromium-6.

On Aug. 23, the state of California issued a proposed chromium-6 drinking water standard of 10 parts per billion.

A lengthy public comment period has begun and it might be a year or more until that standard is adopted — one which would be the first of its kind in the nation.

“PG&E believes future eligibility for the program should be modified pending the final drinking water standard,” wrote Sheryl Bilbrey, PG&E’s director of chromium remediation.

The letter, directed to Patty Kouyoumdjian, executive officer of the Lahontan water control board, seeks to eliminate the one-mile buffer zone and require that future program participants live within the plume boundary and that their domestic well has a chromium-6 detection level above 3.1 parts per billion.

“Residents who currently are eligible for the program will remain in the program with no changes,” she wrote Tuesday.

PG&E’s program guarantees that the level of chromium-6 in its replacement water is more than 800 times lower than the standards currently applied to other California residents.

During the 1950s and early 1960s, PG&E used chromium-6 to protect the metal of its cooling towers used to keep natural gas flowing at its Hinkley compressor station.

Periodically the cooling tower liquids, including chromium-6, were dumped into unlined ponds, where chromium-6 seeped through the dirt and entered the large underground water supply beneath Hinkley.

The resulting plume is believed to be more than seven miles long and two miles wide.

“PG&E is committed to cleaning up the chromium-6 caused by its historical operations,” Bilbrey wrote.

Top executives with the Lahontan Regional Quality Control Board Water could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

“This is way too premature,” said Lester White, a longtime Hinkley resident who is head of a community committee that represents residents at meetings with PG&E and the water board.

“They are trying to duck their responsibilities,” said Daron Banks, who serves on the Community Advisory Commission, along with White.